An additional popular iPod software was removed from the Apple App Store

TikTok’s obsession with the iPod was amplified by Retro Pod.

A program that turned your iPhone into an iPod was obviously going to be popular, as seen by demonstrations of obsolete Minis and clothing using Shuffles as hair clips. TikTokers lauded Retro Pod when it first became popular in late December for being able to recreate the “tactile, bumpy, vibratory feelings” of the iPod that had been lost in the age of music streaming.

Over 5 million people watched videos about the app, but by the second week of January, many started complaining that they couldn’t locate the app at all. Retro Pod was no longer available on the App Store.

Retro Pod’s removal from the App Store is unknown; neither the app’s creator nor Apple responded to The UPSPOT’s request for comment.
But it is not difficult to believe that Apple would not permit it to stand after the app went viral.
The business has a clear policy against applications that copy Apple products.
Retro Pod, however, enjoyed success.
The software was downloaded 443,000 times in total on iOS, including 275,000 times in just the first week of January, according to analytics company Sensor Tower.
It reached its highest point among music applications in the US at position 11 before being reportedly taken down by January 8.

Over the years, even when iPods weren’t typical household appliances, apps that mimicked the iPod have appeared very often.
iClassic was made available for iOS in 2009 as a jailbroken app.
2019 saw the release of (another) retro iPod app for Android and the launch of iPod.js, a web-based iPod.
Along with Retro Pod’s success, iPod.js has also lately gained popularity.
Two-thirds of the site’s 1.8 million visitors in total visited in the last week or so, according to developer Tanner Villarete.
Although they were developed outside the boundaries of the App Store, Apple has already allowed another iPod clone to enter the market.

Rewound, an iOS software, made an attempt to operate within the Apple ecosystem in 2019.

It generated a lot of online attention and received 150,000 downloads two months after its release.

At that point, Apple put a stop to it.

According to Rewound’s creator, Louis Anslow, the software was first taken down for breaking Apple’s in-app purchase policies.

Before Apple again removed it for copying one of their products, he tweaked and re-released it.

Rewound flew a bit too near the sun, similar to Retro Pod.
Apple’s moderation team should have flagged the apps for rejection in the first place, but they did not.
Retro Pod, the most recent in a line of applications that weren’t taken down until others made notice of them, even managed to push through five upgrades following its release in October.
It will need Apple’s improbable permission for an app to ever successfully imitate the iPod experience for iOS consumers.

Also, the market has changed since Rewound was removed.
Apple was still selling iPods three years ago (even if that last model, the iPod Touch, was basically just an iPhone minus the phone).
The iPod was formally discontinued by Apple earlier this year.
Anslow believes there is a bigger demand than ever for software that can convert an iPhone into an iPod because of Apple’s decision to stop making the item and consumers’ fondness for the item.
Even though many people still consider the iPod to be a sentimental artifact, for Apple it still counts as exclusive technology.

Whatever guidelines Apple chooses to implement will govern what can and cannot be an iOS app.

A real iPhone-to-iPod software is unlikely to succeed until the corporation releases its stranglehold on its dormant property—unless, of course, Apple decides to create such an app itself.

They seem to have lost their chance by ignoring the demand.